Table 1.
Characteristics of the study population according to advance care planning completion status
| Characteristics | Decedents with all three types of ACP (n=279) |
Decedents with no or some types of ACP (n=591) |
P-Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Age, median (IQR) | 88.6 (84.7-92.5) | 87.4 (83.3-91.8) | 0.02 |
| Female | 202 (73.2) | 400 (68.9) | 0.22 |
| Race/ethnicity | <0.001 | ||
| Non-Hispanic white | 255 (94.5) | 421 (79.0) | |
| Non-Hispanic black | 13 (3.0) | 110 (12.9) | |
| Hispanic | 11 (2.5) | 60 (8.2) | |
| Married | 65 (23.5) | 151 (26.7) | 0.38 |
| Education attainment | <0.001 | ||
| Less than high school | 81 (26.9) | 299 (47.4) | |
| High school/GED | 143 (54.1) | 226 (40.4) | |
| At least some college | 55 (19.0) | 66 (12.2) | |
| Wealth | 0.002 | ||
| First quartile | 79 (28.7) | 237 (38.8) | |
| Second quartile | 71 (23.9) | 152 (26.0) | |
| Third quartile | 58 (20.1) | 112 (18.6) | |
| Fourth quartile | 71 (27.4) | 90 (16.6) | |
| Medicaid coverage | 76 (26.8) | 246 (40.7) | <0.001 |
| Living in a nursing home | 191 (69.2) | 379 (65.8) | 0.42 |
| Comorbidities | |||
| Heart disease | 159 (57.5) | 316 (53.1) | 0.24 |
| Hypertension | 214 (76.5) | 445 (73.8) | 0.42 |
| Diabetes | 68 (24.8) | 159 (25.1) | 0.93 |
| Lung disease | 50 (18.3) | 115 (19.4) | 0.69 |
| Arthritis | 229 (82.4) | 468 (77.7) | 0.14 |
| Stroke | 99 (33.5) | 222 (36.6) | 0.25 |
| Cancer | 12 (4.6) | 49 (8.4) | 0.09 |
| Function limitation score | 0.60 | ||
| 0 | 105 (37.1) | 252 (41.7) | |
| 1 | 8 (2.8) | 16 (2.5) | |
| 2 | 12 (4.4) | 18 (2.9) | |
| 3 | 9 (3.2) | 22 (3.6) | |
| 4 | 9 (3.2) | 18 (3.2) | |
| 5 | 25 (9.3) | 68 (11.2) | |
| 6 | 111 (40.0) | 197 (35.0) |
Notes: The numbers are No. (%), except for age, based on the 2002-2014 Health and Retirement Study. Presented proportions and medians are weighted to be nationally representative of decedents with dementia (see the main text for the definitions of dementia). The weighted total sample size is 2,812,380. Wealth refers to the net value of total assets, including secondary residence less all debt. Functional limitation score is defined by the number of following activities requiring assistance during the last three months of life: walking, toileting, bathing, transferring, eating, and dressing (range 0-6). Abbreviations: ACP, advance care planning; GED, General Educational Development; IQR, interquartile range.